A Stronghold of Democracy
AT a time when a large part of our daily Press is devoted to -the snortings and bellowings of Fascism and Communism, Mr. Childs's book serves a very useful purpose. It reminds us that democracy, too, has some achievements to its credit. Its -triumphs are not advertised, so we tend to overlook them ; and its errors and failures are so openly discussed that we are sometimes tempted to believe that democracy spells chaos and futility. Nowhere is democracy more firmly established than in the Scandinavian North. It is Mr. Childs's thesis that that democracy has succeeded in controlling capitalism without .mining it ; that it has subjugated the profit motive without killing enterprise ; and that the domestic economy has been -made to serve the greatest good of the greatest number. He -shows that capitalism] has been controlled in two ways : first by the development of the co-operative movement ; second, by the growth of State competition with private enterprise.
It is true that chance has favoured Sweden. Geographically she lies on the outskirts of European civilisation, so far away indeed that the many wars which have been fought on the Continent during the past 120 years have left her unscathed. The industrial revolution which defiled Northern England, and created the ugly problem of a propertyless and rootless wage- earning class, took place so much later in Sweden than in the rest of Western Europe that the country was able to profit from the mistakes of others. The spirit of exploitation was curbed before it had become too powerful, and the appetite of the entrepreneur, which in America grew to monstrous proportions, was held in check. And, finally, as the demand for the raw materials with which Sweden is so richly endowed did not reach its peak until quite recently, Swedish democracy was able to carry on its experiments in an atmosphere of gradually increasing prosperity. The vast forest-lands of the North only became really profitable when compulsory education in other countries created an insatiable demand for newspapers, periodicals and cheap books, and when the invention of artificial silk put silk stockings within reach of every woman's purse. Iron ore from the Arctic grew in value as steel processes in Germany and Great Britain improved. Water-power became an almost priceless asset when it was found possible to harness waterfalls for the production of electric current.
The plant of Swedish democracy has grown to .maturity in an unusually favourable atmosphere. Yet its growth is not wholly fortuitous. The people have long breathed an atmosphere of freedom, and, except for a small upper class which has surrounded itself with a heavy atmosphere of bourgeois snobisme, class differences do not go deep. When the great European trusts and . combines tried to make Sweden their colony they were met with bitter resistance. The co-operative movement owes its popularity to the fact that it fought the trusts on their own ground and beat them.- Mr: Childs devotes nearly -half of his book to the movement, and to its successful struggles with trusts and price-rings. Ile does not make it clear that the Swedish co-operative movement is but another weapon in the endless Swedish struggle against regimentation and foreign domina- tion. The struggle began in all earnestness in the fourteenth century when the Swedish peasants combined to throw out their Danish overlords. It continued throughout the seven- teenth century when Gustavus Adolphus fought his great European battles in order to prevent the forces of the Counter-Reformation from encroaching on Swedish territories. It is apparent today in the restrictions imposed upon foreigners who want to acquire property in Sweden.
The chapter on Swedish housing is particularly illuminating. The co-operative housing movement has been most successful, and has achieved a higher standard than almost anywhere else. Yet if there are almost no slums in Sweden, the degree of overcrowding, both in town and in country, is incredible. In the first flush of successfully producing one-room flats at a fairly reasonable rent, Swedish architects and builders unfortunately standardised this type of accommodation, with the result that thousands upon thousands of Swedish families are today crowded into one room. They can afford to live better, but they prefer to spend their money in other ways. It is the aim of the Socialist Government which was recently returned to power to launch a large-scale housing programme in the hope of remedying this truly shocking state of affairs.
Mr. Childs concludes, and quite rightly, that Sweden has succeeded in achieving the " good life for the greatest number," and that the country has attained a measure of decent living that will serve as a standard for larger nations. This makes it all the more difficult to understand why the Swedish birth-rate is among the lowest in the world. Is it possi- ble that in the rush for telephones and refrigerators and central heating for all, some of the savour has gone out of the spiritual life ? Sweden has won a notable victory over the material world. The ramparts of the spiritual world still
Previous page
